


Dancing around it

by cinderella1147



Series: Off The Record [2]
Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 11:30:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13879947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderella1147/pseuds/cinderella1147
Summary: Takes place during and after S02E06 “One Step Too Many”: how did Sloan's date with the Giant go? what if Don and Mac's conversation at the bar continued?





	Dancing around it

**Author's Note:**

> Note 1: part 2 of the "Off the Record" series, takes place about a week after the first, and assumes the episode S02E06 happened as is; picking up in the middle of it, roughly speaking. You don't have to read the first story to understand this one, but there is one reference that will only make sense if you have read it. sorry? :) hopefully it's still enjoyable regardless.
> 
> Note 2 : Obv, nothing is mine, but since Sorkin is done playing with these characters, I figured it would be okay to borrow them for a little while. 
> 
> Note 3: Constructive criticism is always welcomed. English is not my first language, so feel free to let me know if I made grammar mistakes, etc.
> 
> Note 4: Also, I haven't figured out if there's a way to better format the text and include italics, etc. so if anyone can point me to the instructions on that, it would be super helpful. :)

"Sloan is going out with a football player?" (Don, S02E06)

***

Thursday, March 29, 2012  
10:34PM  
MANDARIN ORIENTAL HOTEL, ROOFTOP BAR

Sloan took a sip of the champagne that she grabbed from a waiter who walked past her moments ago. This might just be the most boring night of her life, and that includes 16 lectures by Professor O’Toole that she had to suffer through as an undergrad at Berkeley. 19th century Philosophy. She still shivered when she thought about those Monday night double-lectures. Still, Sloan would rather listen to those on a loop, than be here. She wasn’t even sure how she ended up coming to begin with. Oh, Erin’s meddling. Of course.

The day before, she ran into her friend, Erin Andrews at the gym. They weren’t super close, but close enough that Erin felt comfortable asking Sloan how she was following the nude photo mess. When she admitted that she was doing “okay,” Erin decided that what Sloan needed was a night on the town with a fun date and no commitment, and she knew just the guy for that. Before Sloan could get in a word, Erin was on the phone with a New York Giant player, setting them up to meet on Thursday night, at Bob Costas’ birthday party. 

At first, she wanted to convince Erin to cancel the whole thing, but then figured after the last couple of weeks, it might be good to get out and have some fun. Except, she wasn’t having fun. At all. 

She was standing by the chocolate fountain, with a drink in her hand, and observing her “date.” He was good looking, and filled out this suit nicely, so that was a pro. But they had zero things in common, so their conversation thus far consisted of discussing the weather, how they have met Erin, how they have met Bob, and preferred drinks at Starbucks. They managed to cover all these topics in the first 15 minutes of the evening, and ever since then this evening was just boring and awkward. She was terrible at socializing with complete strangers, while her date was apparently great at it, because he had been working the room, without her, talking to everyone he saw. She ended up playing a trivia game on her cell, and sampling all the available desserts over the last two hours. 

The birthday cake was set to appear at 11pm, so Sloan checked her Blackberry again for the time. A half an hour earlier she made a decision to leave once the party’s main attraction was over. She liked Bob, and adored his wife, Jill, so she didn’t want to offend them by leaving too early. It really wasn’t their fault her night resembled a bad day at the DMV. 

10:43PM. ‘Jesus. This night will never end. And oh, here comes the Giant now.’ 

“Hey Sloan, the DJ is starting to play some fun stuff, want to take a spin on the dance floor?” He smiled, and Sloan felt a little bad about her earlier thoughts. He was not a bad guy. They just really didn’t have anything in common. But one dance couldn’t hurt.

“Sure.” She smiled back, put down the champagne flute on a table and followed him to the other side of the room where the dance floor was set up. 

80’s beats were pumping out of the giant speakers, and she found herself among a group of celebrities of various merits, letting it loose and having fun. At one point Susanna Guthrie danced up to her and Sloan got so distracted by the tall beauty that she almost fell over when Susanna shouted in her ear that she watched her and ACN every night. 

‘Note to self: must share this with Don and Will. Aaaand, there we go,’ she thought.  
She went a solid 19 minutes without thinking about Don. Next time, hopefully, she’ll make it to an even 20. 

They have gotten pretty close during the Scott-the-Shithead saga of her life, and she genuinely thought that they were heading towards something. But Don was yet to make an actual move, and as for her, she had told him already that she was waiting for him to ask her out. Anymore hints like that would be just pathetic. Even by her standards. Maybe she would talk to Mac about this. Her wisdom might be explosive in certain situations, but she certainly had more knowledge about social, emotional stuff than Sloan did.

She didn’t have more time to contemplate this, because the music slowly got killed and the lights got a bit brighter. The chef rolled out a three-tiered birthday cake and the crowd started clapping. 

A half an hour later she realized the New York Giant left without saying goodbye, so she grabbed her jacket and made her way out of the hotel. In a spur of the moment decision, she texted Mac to find out where she was.  
“Hang Chews,” came the response, so she hailed a cab and sent off a reply: “Don’t leave, I need to speak with you.”

 

Thursday, March 29, 2012  
11:34PM  
HANG CHEW’S

 

“I hope you consider cause and effect, because if we broke one of God’s rules it might be best to just shut about it.”  
Mac chuckled quietly, while fully aware of the weight of Don’s comment.

A few minutes later they were still sitting there, letting the buzz of the bar silence their somber thoughts when Mac heard her phone chime with an incoming message. The screen said “Sloan.”

“Are you still up? Where are you?”  
“Hang Chew’s,” Mac typed back.  
“Don’t leave, I need to speak with you,” came the answer in a few seconds. Sloan was much better at typing on these things. 

“Well,” said Mac and turned to Don meaningfully, “looks like that date with the New York Giant wasn’t a resounding success after all. Just got a message from Sloan and she’s coming here.  
“Really?” Don involuntary turned to the entrance which was in their line of sight from the seats they occupied. “Did she say what happened?”  
“No, just that she needed to talk to me.”  
“Then, I guess I should leave. Let you two speak in private.” He started to get up when Mac janked him back by grabbing his shirt.  
“Don’t be an idiot. You’re staying.” Her voice was serious, but her eyes had a mischief to it that made him nervous. “Don, Don, Don. You have a couple of minutes until she gets here. Use this time wisely and try to honestly answer this question to yourself: what the fuck are you waiting for?”  
With that, she stood and announced that she was going to get another round.

***  
Turns out, he didn’t have a few minutes to answer Mac’s question- and he would probably need more than that anyway, because just after Mac left, Don watched Sloan enter the bar and she promptly took his breath away. 

She wore a black cocktail dress, with intricate lace detailing on the shoulders and on the long sleeves, both of which were see-through. The skirt hit her mid-thigh - it wasn’t a mini dress, but definitely shorter than what he normally would see her wearing at the office. And of course, those damn stiletto heels, making her already fantastic figure all the more graceful and feminine. Her hair was slightly wavy and glossy as always, and he genuinely thought to himself “Breath, you idiot, or you’ll pass out.” So he took a deep, much needed breath and raised his hand to a wave when she started turning around, looking for Mac. 

When she saw him, at first there was an honest surprise that registered on her face, then it blossomed to an open mouthed smile and she walked back to where he was sitting. Mild- and unreasonable- jealousy mixed with pride as he saw several heads turning while she made her way through the crowd. ‘Off with the eyes, fuckers,’ he thought a bit testily. 

“Hey, you’re here too?”  
“Yeah, been talking to Mac for a while. She just went to grab another round.”  
“Oh, cool. Is it okay if I join?”  
He smiled. “Of course.” She sat down across from him, and the next moment Mac showed up with gin and tonics for Don and herself, and a martini for Sloan.  
“Hey! You look fantastic! How did the date with the Giant go?” No one would ever accuse Mac of stalling.

Sloan looked to the side and felt her face flush, because for some reason she found it completely awkward to answer this in Don’s presence. But one look at Mac and she knew she wouldn't let it go, so she was determined to at least avoid any eye contact with Don.  
“It was about as disastrous as you could imagine. I may kill Erin for setting this up. We had absolutely nothing to talk about, nothing in common. He ditched me around midnight, which was good, because I was about to flee the place as well. But, I got to dance with Susanna Guthrie for a while, and that was a nice compensation. That woman is as gorgeous in person as she is on camera. So yeah, it’s safe to say I’m crossing all NFL players off my dancing card for the foreseeable future.”  
She raised her glass imitating a small toast and chanced a glance in Don’s direction. He was watching her silently, then raised his own glass and took a sip. 

“What a bummer,” offered Mac, then added “but maybe it is for the best. A cute ass and 3% body fat is nice and all, but at the end of the day, you just want someone who can hold a conversation, understand who you are, and maybe make mean cheese and mushroom omelet, too.”

She said it so matter-of-fact, so innocently, that it took both Don and Sloan completely by surprise. Their eyes found each other on their own volition in the dark, and Don could have sworn Sloan read him like an open book. After a few drinks and his conversation with Mac, it's possible that he wasn’t able to guard his thoughts as well as he normally did. 

Then Sloan did something that solidified for once and for all that this wasn’t just in his head.  
In a completely innocuous, off handed way, with an elegant tilt of her head, Sloan responded to Mac’s comment:

“Or french toast.”


End file.
